Hands, Head & Heart

Hands, Head & Heart began with a simple idea: to photograph artists in the places where they create. I wanted to look beyond the finished artwork and explore the relationship between the maker, their craft, and the environment that shapes their creativity.

We are familiar with artists finished work and often experience it either online or in a gallery setting. I wanted to get a glimpse of the environment where these finished pieces were created.

By documenting artists in their own studios and workshops, I hoped to create honest portraits that revealed something of their process, passion, and personality.

The title reflects comes from a quote commonly attributed to St Francis of Assisi:

“He who works with his hands is a labourer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”

One question I asked myself right at the beginning was “how do you define an artist?” Something I pondered over for a while and concluded that rather than me stipulating what constitutes an “artist”, I’d simply say that if you consider yourself an artist, then that’s good enough for me.

This approach delivered a wide range of creatives, from painters, illustrators, ceramists, musicians and writers.

The project involved a series of environmental portraits of the artist in their place of work, close up detailed images of them creating and quotes from them.

A few years later, just after the Covid19 pandemic, I returned to the project with Hands, Head & Heart II. Rather than simply revisiting the same artists, I expanded the series to include new creative voices and asked questions of how they had coped during the pandemic.

This two-part project was an incredibly rewarding experience for me as I got to meet some very talented artists and gain a personal insight into many different creative endeavours.

I’m immensely grateful to all those who took part and I’m incredibly proud of the work I produced.